Single deal likely behind Sabah's ‘unusually high' 2023 trade figure, says Phoong
PETALING JAYA : Sabah's industrial development minister Phoong Jin Zhe says the state's 'unusually high' trade figure for 2023 was likely driven by a single transaction and does not reflect the state's actual economic performance.
Phoong also said he had written to the statistics department for clarification of the spike, which saw Sabah's total trade value for that year leaping to RM158 billion, the Daily Express reported.
'If you look at the trend from 2019 to 2022, Sabah's trade consistently hovered between RM36 billion and RM58 billion. But in 2023, it suddenly jumped to RM158 billion,' he said.
He said initial checks suggested that the increase might be linked to a single entry of goods related to a large-scale investment project, which would not reflect long-term trends.
He also said that figures from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) provided a more consistent view of Sabah's trade performance, recording RM52.1 billion in 2023 and an increase to RM53.6 billion the following year.
'This shows that the state's economic fundamentals remain stable and positive,' he added.
Although the reports from both the statistics department and Mida tallied at the national level, showing total Malaysian trade at RM2.6 trillion in 2023 and RM2.9 trillion in 2024, Phoong said the discrepancy in data involving over RM100 billion affected only Sabah.
'That's why I have officially written to the department's director for an explanation. I am still waiting for their reply,' he said.
Phoong said the discrepancy might be due to how the agencies record trade activity, noting that some methods might count goods at points of exit such as ports or airports, which could distort the location attribution in state-level data.
He warned that if corrections were warranted but not made, it could lead to the false conclusion that Sabah's economy was in decline if lower figures were recorded for 2024.
Phoong said that based on Mida's data, Sabah's trade performance in 2024 actually improved from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and 2020, which ranged between RM36 billion and RM40 billion.
Sabah Umno information chief Suhaimi Nasir previously criticised the state government for failing to stimulate economic growth, citing figures from the statistics department showing drops in Sabah's import and export numbers.
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